The Lakehead Thunderwolves are the

U Sports U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS) is the national sport governing body of university sport in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country. Its equivalent body for organized sports at colleges in Canada is the Ca ...

varsity athletic teams that represent

Lakehead University Lakehead University is a public research university with campuses in Thunder Bay and Orillia, Ontario, Canada. Lakehead University, shortened to 'Lakehead U', is non-denominational and provincially supported. It has undergraduate programs, grad ...

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada.

Sports activities

The Lakehead Thunderwolves are perennial powers in the

OUA Oua is an islet on the north-east of Nukufetau atoll, Tuvalu, next to Lafanga Lafanga or Lafaga is an islet of Nukufetau, Tuvalu. The traditional history of Nukufetau recalls that in order to protect the atoll from raiders from Tonga Tong ...

and

in Nordic Skiing and wrestling. The women's and men's Nordic ski teams won both the OUA conference and CIS-CCUNC national team championships in both 2005 and 2006. The women's and men's team four-peated for the OUA Championships in 2008 while the women won their fifth consecutive CIS-CCUNC national championship. The men's wrestling team is ranked in the U Sports Top 10 each year and the women's team is ranked in the North American Top 15. As of 2012, the women have continued their string of dominant performances, having now accomplished the 8-peat for CCUNC championships. Their men's hockey program, resumed in 2001–02, annually leads the U Sports in attendance with minor pro attendance numbers (3000 per game) and has become one of the better programs in

U Sports men's ice hockey U Sports men's ice hockey is the highest level of play of men's ice hockey at the university level under the auspices of U Sports, Canada's governing body for university sports. As these players compete at the university level, they are obligated ...

. The team won the OUA

Queen's Cup The Queen's Cup was an annual football cup competition in Thailand, run by the Football Association of Thailand. The competition was named after Queen Sirikit. It was first contested in 1970, with Bangkok Bank and Royal Thai Air Force joint win ...

conference championship in 2005–06, defeating the

McGill Redmen The McGill Redbirds (formerly the McGill Redmen) and McGill Martlets are the varsity athletic teams that represent McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Team name According to Suzanne Morton, a professor of history at McGill, the name ...

in the one-game final, and subsequently placed second at the

National Championships A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best team, indi ...

Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anchor ...

. In each of its seven seasons, the hockey team has won at least one playoff round and has gone 14–2 on home ice in the playoffs. The Thunderwolves have qualified for the National Championship twice in seven seasons of play. They hosted the National Championships in

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

and

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. It has an intense, and at times brutally violent, rivalry with the

Western Mustangs The Western Mustangs are the athletic teams that represent Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. The school's athletic program supports 46 varsity teams. Their mascot is a Mustang named J.W. and the school colours are purple and white. ...

. Lakehead University previously had a men's ice hockey team called the Lakehead Nor'Westers. The 1966–67 team coached by Hank Akervall and led by captain

Dave Siciliano Dave Siciliano (born July 1946) is a Canadian former ice hockey coach and player. He played university hockey for the Lakehead Nor'Westers, and led them to the International Collegiate Hockey Association championship as the most valuable playe ...

, won the won the

International Collegiate Hockey Association The International Collegiate Hockey Association (ICHA) was an intercollegiate ice hockey conference from 1965-80 competing in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). The conference had member schools in both Canada and the Unit ...

(ICHA) championship. Men's and women's basketball, women's volleyball, track, and cross country have had varying degrees of success, and most of these programs have shown improvement over the past couple seasons. The alpine skiing team (a club sport) competes as one of a small handful of Canadian schools in the

United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association The United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association (USCSA) is the sports federation for collegiate skiing and snowboarding in the United States. With over 180 member colleges, the USCSA fields some 5,000 men and women, alpine, Nordic, fr ...

(USCSA), including University of British Columbia and a few others.

Broadcasts

Lakehead broadcasts many games with live video webcasts, which can be accessed off Lakehead's two athletic sites. All sports are broadcast except Nordic skiing. Basketball is carried live on campus radio station

CILU-FM CILU-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts at 102.7 FM in Thunder Bay, Ontario. It is the campus radio station of the city's Lakehead University. The station was licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commi ...

and webcast o
SSN Canada
SSN Canada Men's away hockey games used to be carried by commercial station Rock94, but just recently the station discontinued this service.

References

External links

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Thunderwolves Hockey
{{U Sports volleyball U Sports teams Lakehead University Sport in Thunder Bay